Hawks counting on leadership and experience in secondary

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Huntingdon football coach Mike Turk has been impressed with his team's effort level during the first three days of preseason practice.

Practicing in shorts and shoulder pads for the first time on Tuesday morning, Turk said the Hawks continued to make progress. In particular, Turk is pleased with the progress of the Hawks' secondary.

Huntingdon has to replace Jeremy Murphy, who was a second-team All-Region performer at cornerback and a second-team All-American as a special teams selection. But the Hawks return four players who started in the secondary last season.

"Losing Murphy, one of the targets in the spring was to find some help at cornerback and I think we have," Turk said. "We have some guys at cornerback and some guys at safety that have really looked good and that I hope are going to provide some pretty good depth this season."

Senior safety Anthony White and senior cornerback Brendon Brown were both 10-game starters last season and junior Jordan Smith and sophomore Anthony Wood combined for 10 starts at safety.

White, a two-time All-Conference selection, enters his senior season as one of the Hawks' all-time leading tacklers. In the Huntingdon record book, he ranks sixth in career solo tackles, eighth in career total tackles and ninth in career interceptions.

White finished last season as the Hawks' fourth leading tackler with 62 stops and had one interception and seven passes broken up.

"He is a pretty quiet kid, but you know what you are going to get out of him," Turk said. "He just leads by example and makes plays."

Smith and Wood split time at the other safety position last season. Smith recorded 16 tackles and had one pass broken up before an injury ended his season. Wood started the remainder of the season and finished with 30 tackles, an interception and a pass broken up.

"Jordan played well for us before he got hurt last season and Anthony Wood had a very good season as a freshman," Turk said. "Demetrius Brown is another guy, that although he didn't play last year, he has been around the program for a year and is playing well."

At cornerback, Brendon Brown is entering his third season as a starter. He was Huntingdon's fifth leading tackler last season with 37 total tackles and also had two interceptions and eight passes broken up.

Turk said sophomores Austin Washington and Demetrius Beverly have looked good early and newcomer Dekian Clinch is showing potential as well.

Huntingdon will practice again in shoulder pads and shorts on Wednesday at 9 a.m. Practices are open to the public.